The Internet of Useless things is growing faster than the Internet of Things. To be fair, some of these things are pretty cool at first glance, but if you think about them for more than 30 seconds it’s pretty clear that these things are unnecessary.
SMART ICE CUBE
This ice cube not only keeps your drink cool, but will also notice when you’re running low on a beverage and uses Bluetooth to automatically order you a new one. It also tracks your drinking habits which is useful but also super depressing. This is marketed towards bars so it also has a feature where you can track your friends who apparently also have these smart ice cubes. Call me a hater, but I think I’ll stick to regular ice cubes and just walk up to the bar to get another drink.
PARROT GARDEN SENSOR
This little gizmo tracks sunlight, temperature, moisture and fertilizer and sends you little alerts about what your plants need. It also has free information sheets on thousands of different plant species. This is really cute and I can see how it would actually be helpful, but it made the list because it isn’t necessary. Plants have been growing long before the iPhone. On the positive side, the official name of this product is “flower power” and that is adorable.
AMAZON DASH BUTTON
This button automatically reorders specific products on Amazon for you. There are hundreds of these buttons available with different logos for different products, and don’t worry, you can’t accidentally order 1,000 paper towel rolls because it only registers one press a day. I can’t imagine a world where this would be necessary. My sincere apologies if you think this little device is cool…but this is pointless. It can only order one item, so you’re going to need a button for every item you purchase often on amazon. What happens when you lose this button? Why can’t you just order RedBull on your phone? Nice try Amazon.
SMART HAIRBRUSH
This hairbrush has sensors that track your hair habits and gives you personal coaching on your beauty ritual. These sensors include a microphone and conductivity sensors that collects data on frizziness, dryness, and split ends just in case looking in a mirror isn’t cool enough for you. It also coaches you on your brushing quality as it tracks brushing patterns and pressure. Not only is this product totally useless, I also don’t like the idea of my hairbrush telling my what to do…
SMART DIAPER
Now your smart phone can tell you when your baby needs a diaper change! Although I’m pretty sure the child’s incessant crying will let you know even when there’s no wifi. What is cool about this, is the technology of cheap and disposable sensors. The developers describe it as the world’s first wireless organic sensor system that’s flexible, so this product could eventually be used in medical devises or other technology that requires flexibility. It could also be used to monitor food spoilage and temperature. However, it is currently being used in diapers and lucky for you, there are multiple brands of this smart diaper. Smart Baby coming soon.